I love fall and have been enjoying making the stereotypical autumn-themed baking projects with pumpkin, apples, and cinnamon. But back around Columbus Day I did a quick jump forward to Christmas baking. I wasn't trying to get into the holiday spirit early -- we
usually wait until the last possible moment to buy our Christmas tree
and the sum total of our decorating efforts is hanging a wreath on the
front door and calling it a day. I didn't want to repeat my misstep of last year, when I waited too long to make Luisa Weiss's Lebkuchen gingerbread cookies. The dough needs to age for two months before baking and I'm proud of myself for remembering to make the Lebkuchen dough in mid-October this year.
The Lebkuchen dough is sitting in our basement and I'll have to wait until December to see how the cookies turn out. But since I had to mix up some Lebkuchengewürz (a spice mix comprised of cinnamon, cloves, allspice, cardamom, ginger, mace, and aniseed) to make the Lebkuchen dough, I figured that I might as well make another cookie that also uses the spice mix. I decided to try Weiss's recipe in Classic German Baking for "Lebkuchen-Powidltatschkerln," or plum-filled gingerbread pockets. They're soft half moon-shaped gingerbread cookies made with rye flour and filled with Pflaumenmus (spiced plum butter).
Weiss provides a recipe for homemade plum butter and I was planning to make my own. But by mid-October it was too late to get fresh Italian prune plums. Fortunately, I was able to pick up a jar of Maintal Pflaumenmus at Rodman's in DC. The dough is easy to make. You mix sugar, an egg, and Lebkuchengewürz spice until frothy; add baking soda dissolved in water, honey, melted butter, rye flour, and salt; and wrap the dough in plastic and chill it for 12-24 hours.
I rolled out the chilled dough between two sheets of parchment paper and cut out circles with a 3-inch cutter. I got 51 cookies from my batch and a half of dough. I needed to use a lot of flour to keep the dough from sticking but it wasn't too difficult to manage. I put a dollop of plum butter in the center of each circle, brushed egg white around the edges of the dough, folded and sealed the cookie shut, crimped the edges with a fork; let them sit at room temperature for half a hour; brushed the tops with milk; and put the cookies in the oven to bake.
The cookies looked like tiny empanadas after baking; I liked their neat and uniform appearance. Weiss says that the cookies need a few days to "ripen" after baking and give the spices "time to unfold their flavors." I tried one shortly after baking and the cookie was quite firm. The cookies definitely softened up after a few days and the intensity of the spice flavor increased; the spice level was pretty aggressive. I really liked the plum filling as well, although I didn't think there was enough of it. There was less than a teaspoon of plum butter in each cookie (the amount called for in the recipe) and because the pockets puffed up in the oven, there was a fair amount of empty space inside. Also, because the spices in the cookie are so strong, the flavor of the plum butter paled in comparison.
These tasty gingerbread parcels were a nice Christmas cookie preview. But I think I'll wait until December to use up the rest of my Lebkuchengewürz spice mix!
Recipe: "Lebkuchen-Powidltatschkerln (Plum-Filled Gingerbread Pockets)" from Classic German Baking by Luisa Weiss.
The Lebkuchen dough is sitting in our basement and I'll have to wait until December to see how the cookies turn out. But since I had to mix up some Lebkuchengewürz (a spice mix comprised of cinnamon, cloves, allspice, cardamom, ginger, mace, and aniseed) to make the Lebkuchen dough, I figured that I might as well make another cookie that also uses the spice mix. I decided to try Weiss's recipe in Classic German Baking for "Lebkuchen-Powidltatschkerln," or plum-filled gingerbread pockets. They're soft half moon-shaped gingerbread cookies made with rye flour and filled with Pflaumenmus (spiced plum butter).
Weiss provides a recipe for homemade plum butter and I was planning to make my own. But by mid-October it was too late to get fresh Italian prune plums. Fortunately, I was able to pick up a jar of Maintal Pflaumenmus at Rodman's in DC. The dough is easy to make. You mix sugar, an egg, and Lebkuchengewürz spice until frothy; add baking soda dissolved in water, honey, melted butter, rye flour, and salt; and wrap the dough in plastic and chill it for 12-24 hours.
I rolled out the chilled dough between two sheets of parchment paper and cut out circles with a 3-inch cutter. I got 51 cookies from my batch and a half of dough. I needed to use a lot of flour to keep the dough from sticking but it wasn't too difficult to manage. I put a dollop of plum butter in the center of each circle, brushed egg white around the edges of the dough, folded and sealed the cookie shut, crimped the edges with a fork; let them sit at room temperature for half a hour; brushed the tops with milk; and put the cookies in the oven to bake.
These tasty gingerbread parcels were a nice Christmas cookie preview. But I think I'll wait until December to use up the rest of my Lebkuchengewürz spice mix!
Recipe: "Lebkuchen-Powidltatschkerln (Plum-Filled Gingerbread Pockets)" from Classic German Baking by Luisa Weiss.
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